


You're a Work of Art

by fangirl0003



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: A little bit of angst, Bad Parent Gabriel Agreste, F/M, Post Reveal, but also some fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:15:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28754232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl0003/pseuds/fangirl0003
Summary: Adrien's father once took away his colouring pencils, but the talent never really left Adrien.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 15
Kudos: 111





	You're a Work of Art

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in response to this Tumblr post:  
> https://kittychatuwu.tumblr.com/post/633470007124361216/adrien-childhood-head-cannons-w-some-chloe

“What’s this one?” Adrien held up Marinette’s sketchbook, peeking over it at her.

Marinette glanced up from the dress she was pining distractedly. “Oh, that’s just an idea I had for an evening gown.”

  
Adrien wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Planning on going somewhere, bugaboo?”

  
Marinette rolled her eyes, smiling good-naturedly. “Yes, actually. My amazing boyfriend invited me to go to a fancy dinner with him.” She took a few steps back from her mannequin, eyeing it as she continued. “He’s a model – and he’s really good at it. He wants to be a physics professor someday, so not only is he gorgeous, but he’s also a total nerd. But he’s helping me get my foot in the door of the fashion industry by making me his date for all of these fashion events.”

“Sounds like a great guy.”

Marinette laughed outright. “He is!” She flashed him a smile from across the room. “And he’s completely out of your league, kitty. You’ll never beat him out for the spot of first in my heart.”

Adrien clutched at his chest, falling dramatically off the chaise with a loud crash onto the floor. “You wound me, milady!”

Marinette laughed, and Adrien couldn’t help a grin from spreading across his face. Marinette’s laugh was one of the most beautiful sounds the world had ever been blessed to hear, and he would do practically anything to make her laugh like that.

“Silly kitty,” she said affectionately, coming over and picking up his plate. “Looks like you’re out of croissants. Want me to get more?”

Adrien’s mouth watered. “ _Are_ there more?”

“Adrien, I live in a _bakery_ in _Paris_. I certainly should hope there are more.”

Adrien just grinned up at her, not moving from his spot on the floor.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Marinette decided. She threw a smile over her shoulder at him as she walked toward the trap door. “Honestly, I sometimes think you only wanted to date me because of the food.”

“What colour is it?” Adrien asked suddenly.

Marinette stopped, confusion flashing across her face. “Sorry?”

“The dress,” Adrien explained. “The one you want to make for the dinner.”

Marinette glanced at the sketchbook still in one of Adrien’s hands. “At this rate, I might just wear what I have on my mannequin now instead.”

“Why?” Adrien asked, puzzled.

“I can’t get the colours of it right,” Marinette said, frustration bleeding into her voice. “It’s an amazing gown, but I can’t decide what the colour pallet is.”

“Whatever you do, I think it would look amazing,” Adrien offered his vote of confidence as he pushed himself up and leaned on one elbow, flashing one of his model-worthy grins.

Marinette returned it with a weary smile of her own. “Thanks, Adrien.” She pulled open the trap door, heading downstairs, plate in hand.

Adrien sat up fully now, crossing his legs and studying the sketchbook a little more closely. The design was amazing. It was obviously made for Marinette, flowing down in the sketch so smoothly it reminded him of water.

What if it _were_ like water?

The gears in his mind began turning instantly, and it was like he could practically see the colours on the sketch blooming to life. It would have a blue gradient going down it like a waterfall, white dotting it like the bubbling foam on top of a fast-moving river, dark shadows and glints of light mixing all at once in the rest of it.

Without even really thinking about it, Adrien stood, crossing the room to Marinette’s desk. Her colour pencils were out, and he found himself grabbing the ones he wanted, eyeing them to decide which ones he’d need to blend together to create the right shades he wanted. If there had been watercolour paint available, it would have caught the effect he wanted he better, but Marinette’s sketchbook paper wasn’t made to support watercolours.

Adrien set to work, colouring and shading and blending colours together on the page in one beautiful, flowing, frothy mess of chaos, control, and beauty. The pencils seemed to glide easily on the page for him, long-forgotten motions of using these tools to create art like this returning to him.

  
“What are you doing?”

  
Adrien jumped so badly that he slammed his knees on the underside of Marinette’s desk. He whipped around to find Marinette there, staring down at the sketchbook.

  
Instantly, Adrien’s mouth went dry. Another long-forgotten memory returned to him: trying to help his father with his designs and finding him staring over Adrien’s shoulder, much the same way Marinette was now, at what he had done.

  
“I… I mean… I thought…” Adrien floundered so badly he might as well have just been dropped into the flowing mass of water he’d been trying to capture on paper.

  
“It’s _amazing_ , Adrien,” Marinette said, taking him by surprise as she scooped up her sketchbook, studying the dress. “I don’t know where I’d possibly find fabric like this so I could make the dress look like this, though.”

  
“Maybe you could sew pieces on?” Adrien offered hesitantly, his heart still galloping in his chest. “They could hang, and kind of flutter and flow around, like…”

  
“Like _water_!” Marinette finished, her eyes lighting up. “This colour design is ingenious, Adrien!” She glanced up at him, her blue eyes sparkling. “Where did you learn to colour like this?”

  
Adrien’s mouth went dry. “I… didn’t.”

  
“Just naturally talented?” Marinette asked, a teasing smile flickering across her lips in a way that was so _Ladybug_ that Adrien was thrown for a loop for a second upon seeing it. It had taken them both so long to figure out who the other was, but now that he knew, he wondered how he’d never seen it before.

  
The Cat Noir part of him wanted to answer Marinette’s question with a smirk, a casual “You know it!”.

  
But the words caught in his throat, and he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

  
“Kitty?” Marinette asked, her smile fading slightly, seeming to catch the note of something wrong in his silence.

  
“I used to draw,” Adrien admitted. “But after I ruined one of my father’s designs…”

  
Marinette’s face softened. “Oh, _kitty_ …” She looked down at her design. “Did you think _I_ was going to be mad at you?” she asked quietly.

  
“A little,” Adrien admitted.

  
They both fell silent for a few moments.

  
“Do you… want to help me with some other clothes?” Marinette finally asked hesitantly. “I’ve been on the fence about how I want them to look as well.”

  
Adrien jerked his head up in surprise. “You want me to do _more_?”

  
“You have incredible talent,” Marinette said, tapping the page with her now-coloured design, smiling encouragingly. “Try.”

  
Adrien stared at her for a few moments before a lopsided, Cat-Noir-worthy grin appeared on his face.

* * *

“It’s a Marinette Dupain-Cheng original,” Adrien said proudly, gesturing to his girlfriend’s beautiful dress.

  
“How exquisite,” Audrey Bourgeois said, eyeing the dress. “It looks just like flowing water.”

  
Marinette blushed at the praise. “Well, I didn’t do it alone,” she said modestly. She sent a shy smile at Adrien. “Adrien came up with the colours himself.”

  
“Did you, now?” Gabriel Agreste said, surprise tinging his voice.

  
Marinette lifted her chin up slightly, and Adrien was easily able to see the Ladybug in her, ready to defend. “Yes, and he’s _incredibly_ talented,” she told Gabriel, putting emphasis on the word, as if to tell him how much the man had lost over time in his son.

  
And it wasn’t just colouring abilities.

**Author's Note:**

> This was really rough, because I do have to go study for more finals, but I wanted to share it :)


End file.
